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132 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Cryosphere
The cryosphere is the frozen water part of the Earth system. Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska. One part of the cryosphere is ice that is found in water. This includes frozen parts of the ocean, such as waters surrounding Antarctica and the Arctic.
Cirque
A steep, amphitheatre-shaped hollow occurring at the upper end of a mountain valley, especially one forming the head of a glacier or stream. Cirques are formed by the erosive activity of glaciers and often contain a small lake.
Piedmont glacier
a glacier formed by convergence of the ends of valley glaciers at the base of mountains.
Nunataks
an isolated peak of rock projecting above a surface of inland ice or snow.
ice shelf
a floating sheet of ice permanently attached to a landmass.
Zoneof ablation
Ablation zone or ablation area refers to the low-altitude area of a glacier or ice sheet below firn with a net loss in ice mass due to melting, sublimation, evaporation, ice calving, aeolian processes like blowing snow, avalanche, and any other ablation.
Terminus
1. a final point in space or time; an end or extremity.

2.a moraine marking the farthest advance of a glacier or ice sheet.
Glacial drift
earth and rocks which have been transported by moving ice, land ice, or icebergs; bowlder drift.
Moraine
An accumulation of boulders, stones, or other debris carried and deposited by a glacier.
Horns
a stretch of land or water shaped like a horn
Glacial trough
A U-shaped valley or glacial trough is formed by the process of glaciation. It has a characteristic U shape, with steep, straight sides and a flat bottom. Glaciated valleys are formed when a glacier travels across and down a slope, carving the valley by the action of scouring.
Lateral moraines
are a product of rock fall onto the margin of a glacier. Rock fall is a result of frost weathering of the rock wall and of over-steepening of the cliff by glacial erosion, leading to rock slope failure. The rock debris is carried along the glacier edge as it moves towards the snout.
Recessional moraine
are often observed as a series of transverse ridges running across a valley behind a terminal moraine. They form perpendicular to the lateral moraines that they reside between and are composed of unconsolidated debris deposited by the glacier.
Melt-out till
Till or glacial till is unsorted glacial sediment. Till is derived from the erosion and entrainment of material by the moving ice of a glacier. It is deposited some distance down-ice to form terminal, lateral, medial and ground moraines.
Drumlin
clusters are glacial landforms, composed primarily of glacial till, which have been extensively studied. Geologists have proposed several theories about their origin. They are formed a short distance within the receding glacier ice and record the final direction of ice movement.
Periglacial
The earliest definitions suggested that these geomorphic environments were located at periphery of past Pleistocene glaciers. In these environments, the landscape is dominantly influenced by frost action. However, frost action also influences landscapes that were not at the margin of ancient glaciers. For this reason, we should use a broader definition of this term. This definition suggests that in a periglacial environment the effects of freezing and thawing drastically modify the ground surface. Types of modification include the displacement of soil materials, migration of groundwater, and the formation of unique landforms. More than a third of the Earth's terrestrial surface can be included in this definition.

Ice Age
A cold period marked by extensive glaciation.
Glaciers
are made up of fallen snow that, over many years, compresses into large, thickened ice masses. Glaciers form when snow remains in one location long enough to transform into ice.
Valley glacier
a glacier usually originating in a cirque at a valley head or in a plateau ice cap and flowing downward between the walls of a valley.
Ice cap
a covering of ice over a large area, especially on the polar region of a planet.
Ice sheet
a permanent layer of ice covering an extensive tract of land, especially a polar region.
Zoneof accumulation
Area of a glacier where additions of snow exceed losses of ice from melting, evaporation, and sublimation
Equilibrium line
The elevation at which accumulation and melting of glacier ice are equal is known as the equilibrium line and is roughly equivalent to the snow line. It frequently varies greatly over short distances and from year to year on a specific glacier.
Basal sliding
is the act of a glacier sliding over the bed due to meltwater under the ice acting as a lubricant. This movement very much depends on the temperature of the area, the slope of the glacier, the bed roughness, the amount of meltwater from the glacier, and the glacier's size.
Stratified drift
deposited by, or reworked by running water, or deposited in standing water. The primary source of ground water in the study area is the glacial drift aquifer. glacial drift overlies the bedrock throughout much of this region.
Glaciations
the process, condition, or result of being covered by glaciers or ice sheets.
Aretes
a sharp mountain ridge.
Hanging valleys
a valley that is cut across by a deeper valley or a cliff.
Medial moraine
A medial moraine is a ridge of moraine that runs down the center of a valley floor. It forms when two glaciers meet and the debris on the edges of the adjacent valley sides join and are carried on top of the enlarged glacier.
Outwash plain
also called a sandur (plural: sandurs), sandr or sandar, is a plain formed of glacial sediments deposited by meltwater outwash at the terminus of a glacier.
Till plain
is an extensive flat plain of glacial till that forms when a sheet of ice becomes detached from the main body of a glacier and melts in place, depositing the sediments it carried. Ground moraines are formed when the till melts out of the glacier in irregular heaps, forming rolling hills.
Kettle
a round hollow formed by the melting of a mass of buried ice.
Permafrost
is a permanently frozen layer below the Earths surface.
Alpine glaciers
Alpine glaciers form on mountainsides and move downward through valleys.
Tidewater glacier
a slowly moving mass of ice originating from an accumulation of snow. It can either spread out from a central mass (continental glacier) or descend from a high valley (alpine glacier)
Ice field
1. a very large flat expanse of ice floating in the sea; large ice floe

2.a large mass of ice permanently covering an extensive area of land
Outlet glacier
A stream of ice from an ice cap to the sea.
Firn
partially compacted granular snow that is the intermediate stage between snow and glacial ice. Firn is found under the snow that accumulates at the head of a glacier. It is formed under the pressure of overlying snow by the processes of compaction, recrystallization, localized melting, and the crushing of individual snowflakes. This process is thought to take a period of about one year. Annual layers of firn may often be detected by thin films of dust or ash that accumulate on the surface during each summer.
Mass balance
The mass balance of a glacier is a concept critical to all theories of glacier flow and behaviour. It is simple enough, really: mass balance is simply the gain and loss of ice from the glacier system1. A glacier is the product of how much mass it receives and how much it loses by melting. It can be thought of as the ‘health of a glacier’; glaciers losing more mass than they receive will be in negative mass balance and so will recede. Glaciers gaining more mass than they lose will be in positive mass balance and will advance. Glaciers gaining and losing approximately the same amount of snow and ice are thought of as ‘in equilibrium’, and will neither advance nor recede. For clarification: when we talk about glaciers advancing, receding or being in equilibrium, we are talking about the position of their snout. Glaciers will continually flow under the force of gravity; ice is continually being moved from the upper reaches to the lower reaches, where it melts.
Crevasse
a deep open crack, especially one in a glacier.
Till
in geology, unsorted material deposited directly by glacial ice and showing no stratification.
Tarn
A small mountain lake, especially one formed by glaciers
Col
A col in the geographic (as opposed to meteorological) sense is a geomorphological term referring to the lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks
Fjord
a long, narrow arm of the sea bordered by steep cliffs: usually formed by glacial erosion.
Terminal moraine
a moraine marking the farthest advance of a glacier or ice sheet.
Lodgement till
sediment which has been deposited by plastering of glacial debris from a sliding glacier bed.
Esker
a long ridge of gravel and other sediment, typically having a winding course, deposited by meltwater from a retreating glacier or ice sheet.
Kame
a steep-sided mound of sand and gravel deposited by a melting ice sheet.
Thermokarst
a form of periglacial topography resembling karst, with hollows produced by the selective melting of permafrost.
• Describe the predicated effect of climate changes on glaciations
Global climate change has already had observable effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner.Effects that scientists had predicted in the past would result from global climate change are now occurring: loss of sea ice, accelerated sea level rise and longer, more intense heat waves.
• Explain the possible causes of glaciations cycles
Well, there are two main theories behind the cause of glaciation. One theory has to do with changing continental positions, which is based on the theory of plate tectonics, in which scientists believe that the Earth's surface is made up of large plates that move over top of a more fluid, deeper layer (somewhat like a puck glides over an air hockey table). The continents sit on top of these large plates and therefore their positions are constantly changing.This movement of large land masses affects the circulation patterns of the oceans and atmosphere. When these circulation patterns change, the result is a change in climate. For example, if continents shift in such a way that they block warm water currents from the equator from making their way north to the poles, then ice can grow in those polar regions.
• Outline the causes and effects of permafrost
Effects of climate: The most conspicuous change in thickness of permafrost is related to climate. At Barrow, Alaska, U.S., the mean annual air temperature is −12 °C (10 °F), and the thickness is 400 metres. At Fairbanks, Alaska, in the discontinuous zone of permafrost in central Alaska, the mean annual air temperature is −3 °C (27 °F), and the thickness is about 90 metres. Near the southern border of permafrost, the mean annual air temperature is about 0 or −1 °C, and the perennially frozen ground is only a few feet thick.If the mean annual air temperature is the same in two areas, the permafrost will be thicker where the conductivity of the ground is higher and the geothermal gradient is less. A.H. Lachenbruch of the U.S. Geological Survey reports an interesting example from northern Alaska. The mean annual air temperatures at Cape Simpson and Prudhoe Bay are similar, but permafrost thickness is 275 metres at Cape Simpson and about 650 metres at Prudhoe Bay because rocks at Prudhoe Bay are more siliceous and have a higher conductivity and a lower geothermal gradient than rocks at Cape Simpson.

Effects of water bodies:Bodies of water, lakes, rivers, and the sea have a profound effect on the distribution of permafrost. A deep lake that does not freeze to the bottom during the winter will be underlain by a zone of thawed material. If the minimum horizontal dimension of the deep lake is about twice as much as the thickness of permafrost nearby, there probably exists an unfrozen vertical zone extending all the way to the bottom of permafrost. Such thawed areas extending all the way through permafrost are widespread under rivers and sites of recent rivers in the discontinuous zone of permafrost and under major, deep rivers in the far north. Under the wide floodplains of rivers in the subarctic, the permafrost is sporadically distributed both laterally and vertically. Small, shallow lakes that freeze to the bottom each winter are underlain by a zone of thawed material, but the thawed zone does not completely penetrate permafrost except near the southern border of permafrost.


Effects of solar radiation, vegetation, and snow cover:In such as south-facing hillslopes receive more incoming solar energy per unit area than other slopes, they are warmer; permafrost is generally absent on these in the discontinuous zone and is thinner in the continuous zone. The main role of vegetation in permafrost areas is to shield perennially frozen ground from solar energy. Vegetation is an excellent insulating medium and removal or disturbance of it, either by natural processes or by humans, causes thawing of the underlying permafrost. In the continuous zone the permafrost table may merely be lowered by the disturbance of vegetation, but in a discontinuous zone permafrost may be completely destroyed in certain areas.Snow cover also influences heat flow between the ground and the atmosphere and therefore affects the distribution of permafrost. If the net effect of timely snowfalls is to prevent heat from leaving the ground in the cold winter, permafrost becomes warmer. Actually, local differences in vegetation and snowfall in areas of thin and warm permafrost are critical for the formation and existence of the perennially frozen ground. Permafrost is not present in areas of the world where great snow thicknesses persist throughout most of the winter.
formation of periglacial landforms
The processes in periglacial areas give rise to a large variety of landforms. These landforms include ice wedges, patterned ground and pingos. There is a full explanation of pingo formation and diagrams of the other major landforms below, and you can research the explanations of the others yourself. The transect below also shows how climate, the depth of the active layer and the type of permafrost vary across this zone;
Parent material
is the geologic material from which soil horizons form. There are seven variations of parent material. Weathered Bedrock, Till, Outwash Deposit, Eolian Sand, Loess, Alluvium, and Local Overwash. Here are the rules for distinquishing which one to pick on the scorecard.
Weathering
the various mechanical and chemical processes that cause exposed rock to decompose.
Regolith
the layer of unconsolidated rocky material covering bedrock.
Humus
the dark organic material in soils, produced by the decomposition of vegetable or animal matter and essential to the fertility of the earth.
Soil horizon
is a layer generally parallel to the soil surface, whose physical characteristics differ from the layers above and beneath. Each soil type usually has three or four horizons. Horizons are defined in most cases by obvious physical features, chiefly colour and texture.
Soil profile
as a vertical section of the soil from the ground surface downwards to where the soil meets the underlying rock.
Soil enrichment
the top layer of the land surface of the earth that is composed of disintegrated rock particles, humus, water, and air. the act of improving something
Eluviation
he transportation of dissolved or suspended material within the soil by the movement of water when rainfall exceeds evaporation
Illuviation
accumulation of dissolved or suspended soil materials in one area or horizon as a result of eluviation from another
Leaching
Natural process by which water soluble substances (such as calcium, fertilizers, pesticides) are washed out from soil or wastes. These leached out chemicals (called leachites) cause pollution of surface and sub-surface water.Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/leaching.html#ixzz3YpB7Z0pj
Calcification
is the accumulation of calcium salts in a body tissue. It normally occurs in the formation of bone, but calcium can be deposited abnormally in soft tissue,[1][2] causing it to harden. Calcifications may be classified on whether there is mineral balance or not, and the location of the calcification.[3]
Hard pan
In soil science, agriculture and gardening, hardpan or ouklip is a general term for a dense layer of soil, usually found below the uppermost topsoil layer. There are different types of hardpan, all sharing the general characteristic of being a distinct soil layer that is largely impervious to water.
Gleyzation
he product of waterlogged soil conditions, and hence an anaerobic environment; it encourages the reduction of iron compounds by micro-organisms and often causes mottling of soil into a patchwork of grey and rust colours. The process is known as gleying, or gleyzation
Podzolization
soil science, podzols (known as spodosols in China and the United States of America and podosols in Australia) [citation needed] are the typical soils of coniferous, or boreal forests.
Decalcification
Removal by solution of the calcium carbonate constituents from a rock or sediment, leaving a residuum of noncalcareous material
Laterization
functional specialization of the brain, with some skills, as language, occurring primarily in the left hemisphere and others, as the perception of visual and spatial relationships, occurring primarily in the right hemisphere. lateralization also allows for rapid and abrupt frequency changes.
Salinization
Salinization is the process by which water-soluble salts accumulate in the soil. Salinization is a resource concern because excess salts hinder the growth of crops by limiting their ability to take up water. Salinization may occur naturally or because of conditions resulting from management practices.
Arable soil
ground that can be plowed and cultivated
Soil texture
is a qualitative classification tool used in both the field and laboratory to determine classes for agricultural soils based on their physical texture.
Loam
a soil with roughly equal proportions of sand, silt, and clay.

Soil structure

by the way individual particles of sand, silt, and clay are assembled.

Peds

are natural and persistent aggregates of soil.

Gravitational water

Soil water of a temporary character that results from prolonged infiltration from above and which moves downward to the groundwater zone in response to gravity.

Evapotranspiration

Discharge of water from the earth's surface to the atmosphere by evaporation from lakes, streams, and soil surfaces and by transpiration from plants. Also known as fly-off; total evaporation; water loss.

Soil-water budget

tracks the inputs and outputs of water in soil.

Available water

is the range of available water that can be stored in soil and be available for growing crops.

Hygroscopic water

Water absorbed from the atmosphere and held very tightly by the soil particles, so that it is unavailable to plants in amounts sufficient for them to survive.

Field capacity

is the amount of soil moisture or water content held in the soil after excess water has drained away and the rate of downward movement has decreased. This usually takes place 2–3 days after rain or irrigation in pervious soils of uniform structure and texture.

Capillary water

water that remains in the soil after gravitational water is drained out, that is subject to the laws of capillary movement, and that is in the form of a film around the soil grains

Wilting point

A condition in which a plant begins to use water from its own tissues for transpiration because soil water has been exhausted.

Soil order

USDA Soil Taxonomy developed by United States Department of Agriculture and the National Cooperative Soil Survey provides an elaborate classification of soil types according to several parameters (most commonly their properties) and in several levels: Order, Suborder, Great Group, Subgroup, Family, and Series.

Entisols

a soil of an order comprising mineral soils that have not yet differentiated into distinct horizons.

Inceptisols

a soil of an order comprising freely draining soils in which the formation of distinct horizons is not far advanced, such as brown earth.

Alfisols
a soil of an order comprising leached basic or slightly acid soils with a clay-enriched B horizon (subsoil).
Spodosols
a soil of an order rich in aluminum oxide and organic matter, typically characterized by low fertility, and including most podzols.
Ultisols
a highly weathered leached red or reddish-yellow acid soil with a clay-rich B horizon (subsoil), occurring in warm, humid climates.
Oxisols
a soil of an order comprising stable, highly weathered, tropical mineral soils with highly oxidized subsurface horizons.
Aridisols
a soil of an order comprising typically saline or alkaline soils with very little organic matter, characteristic of arid regions.
Gelisols
an order in USDA soil taxonomy. They are soils of very cold climates which are defined as containing permafrost within two meters of the soil surface.
Vertisols
a clayey soil with little organic matter that occurs in regions having distinct wet and dry seasons.
Andisols
are soils formed in volcanic ash and defined as soils containing high proportions of glass and amorphous colloidal materials, including allophane, imogolite and ferrihydrite. In the FAO soil classification
Histosols
a soil of an order comprising peaty soils, with a deep surface layer of purely organic material.
Biogeography
the branch of biology that deals with the geographical distribution of plants and animals.

Biota

the animal and plant life of a particular region, habitat, or geological period.

Ecosystems

a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Food chain

a hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food. the series of processes by which food is grown or produced, sold, and eventually consumed.

Trophic level

each of several hierarchical levels in an ecosystem, comprising organisms that share the same function in the food chain and the same nutritional relationship to the primary sources of energy.

Food web

a system of interlocking and interdependent food chains.

Respiration

a process in living organisms involving the production of energy, typically with the intake of oxygen and the release of carbon dioxide from the oxidation of complex organic substances.

Dynamic equilibrium

a state of balance between continuing processes.

Photosynthesis

the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis in plants generally involves the green pigment chlorophyll and generates oxygen as a byproduct.

Biomass

the total mass of organisms in a given area or volume.organic matter used as a fuel, especially in a power station for the generation of electricity.

Net primary production

Net primary production is the rate at which all the plants in an ecosystem produce net useful chemical energy; it is equal to the difference between the rate at which the plants in an ecosystem produce useful chemical energy (GPP) and the rate at which they use some of that energy during respiration.

Biochemical cycle

a biogeochemical cycle or substance turnover or cycling of substances is a pathway by which a chemical substance moves through both biotic (biosphere) and abiotic (lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere) compartments of Earth.

Carbon cycle

The combined processes, including photosynthesis, decomposition, and respiration, by which carbon as a component of various compounds cycles between its major reservoirs—the atmosphere, oceans, and living organisms.

Nitrogen cycle

the series of processes by which nitrogen and its compounds are interconverted in the environment and in living organisms, including nitrogen fixation and decomposition.

Nitrogen fixation

the chemical processes by which atmospheric nitrogen is assimilated into organic compounds, especially by certain microorganisms as part of the nitrogen cycle.

Denitrification

is a microbially facilitated process of nitrate reduction (performed by a large group of heterotrophic facultative anaerobic bacteria) that may ultimately produce molecular nitrogen (N2) through a series of intermediate gaseous nitrogen oxide products.

Ecological biogeography

Ecological biogeography studies how animal species are distributed in relation to the environment. The environment that influences what animals are present in a region includes both nonliving, abiotic factors (such as climate or soil composition) as well as living, biotic factors (such as other plants and animals). Earth is divided into major ecological areas called biomes . Biomes are regions of distinct climate and plant life. There are several kinds of biomes. Examples include the dry, hot desert in which cactuses and other plants are adapted to low water conditions, and the tropical evergreen forest with heavy year-round rainfall and lush plant life.Dispersal occurs when an animal moves away from the area in which it was born and lives in another area. Dispersal increases the biogeographic range of a species, spreading the population. However, the extent to which an animal can disperse may be limited by ecological factors. Animals that disperse into areas for which they are not adapted will not survive. For example, alligators cannot disperse into central North America because it is too cold during the winter. These ecological limits to dispersal help determine the range of an animal species.

Habitat

he natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism.

Ecological niche

The place or function of a given organism within its ecosystem. Note: Different organisms may compete for the same niche. For example, in a forest there may be a niche for an organism that can fly and eat nectar from blossoms.

Deciduous

Shedding leaves at the end of a growing season and regrowing them at the beginning of the next growing season. Most deciduous plants bear flowers and have woody stems and broad rather than needlelike leaves. Maples, oaks, elms, and aspens are deciduous. Compare evergreen. See more at abscission.Falling off or shed at a particular season or stage of growth, as antlers.

Competition

the struggle among organisms, both of the same and of different species, for food, space, and other vital requirements.

Predation

An organism that lives by preying on other organisms.

Symbiosis

A close, prolonged association between two or more different organisms of different species that may, but does not necessarily, benefit each member.A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.

Mutualism

An association between two organisms of different species in which each member benefits.

Parasitism

the relationship between a parasite and its host

Ecological succession

he gradual and orderly process of change in an ecosystem brought about by the progressive replacement of one community by another until a stable climax is established

Primary succession

The ecological succession of plant and animal communities in a disturbed area where no topsoil exists, as on a new lava flow.

Secondary succession

The ecological succession of plant and animal communities in a disturbed area where topsoil has been retained, as in an area that has been recently burned by fire.

Climax stage

the final stage of biotic succession attainable by a plant community in an area under the environmental conditions present at a particular time. For example, cleared forests in the eastern United States progress from fields, to old fields (with colonizing trees and shrubs), to forests of these early colonists, and finally to climax communities of longer-lived tree species. The species composition of the climax community remains the same because all the species present successfully reproduce themselves and invading species fail to gain a foothold. Because climatic changes, ecological processes, and evolutionary processes cause changes in the environment over very long periods of time, the climax stage is not completely permanent.

Pioneer stage

A general term describing the early stages of a plant

Invasive species

is a plant or animal that is not native to a specific location (an introduced species); and has a tendency to spread, which is believed to cause damage to the environment, human economy and/or human health.

Biodiversity

is the variety of different types of life found on earth. It is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation (number of species) within an area, biome, or planet.

Evolution

the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth.

Natural selection

the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. The theory of its action was first fully expounded by Charles Darwin and is now believed to be the main process that brings about evolution.

Species

a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding.

Genus

a principal taxonomic category that ranks above species and below family

Dispersal

the action or process of distributing things or people over a wide area